In Panama, on the slopes of the Barú volcano, 2,000 metres above sea level, lies the Sendero de los Quetzales.
On the edge of La Amistad National Park, shared by Costa Rica and Panama, you walk eight kilometres through the cloud forest.
Always searching for the dazzling quetzal, the bird of the gods.
In August, the weather is rainy. The sun hides all day long.
The wind brings the forest to life. Branches and even entire trees fall to the ground – fortunately never on us.
We walked for six hours. We didn’t meet anyone.
There are so few tourists that one of the rangers is bored enough to decide to accompany us.
We encounter neither people nor animals.
We can only hear the quetzals from afar. We don’t have any photos yet, but that will surely change soon, as the quetzal is native to all of Central America.
We end up meeting an animal after all.
A little mouse crosses our path.
And poses for Michael’s camera for minutes on end.
Even small encounters like this make a day unique.
All photos ©M. Schumacher